LGMS Berhad (KLSE:LGMS) has had a rough month with its share price down 9.0%. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Particularly, we will be paying attention to LGMS Berhad's ROE today.
Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In other words, it is a profitability ratio which measures the rate of return on the capital provided by the company's shareholders.
See our latest analysis for LGMS Berhad
How To Calculate Return On Equity?
The formula for return on equity is:
Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity
So, based on the above formula, the ROE for LGMS Berhad is:
13% = RM10m ÷ RM79m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2023).
The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every MYR1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of MYR0.13.
What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?
Thus far, we have learned that ROE measures how efficiently a company is generating its profits. Based on how much of its profits the company chooses to reinvest or "retain", we are then able to evaluate a company's future ability to generate profits. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.
LGMS Berhad's Earnings Growth And 13% ROE
To start with, LGMS Berhad's ROE looks acceptable. Yet, the fact that the company's ROE is lower than the industry average of 17% does temper our expectations. Although, we can see that LGMS Berhad saw a modest net income growth of 15% over the past five years. We reckon that there could be other factors at play here. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio. Bear in mind, the company does have a respectable level of ROE. It is just that the industry ROE is higher. So this also provides some context to the earnings growth seen by the company.
Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that LGMS Berhad's growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 11% in the same period, which is great to see.
The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. By doing so, they will have an idea if the stock is headed into clear blue waters or if swampy waters await. Is LGMS Berhad fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.